How to maintain your gas stove

If you’re a new owner of a gas stove or a long-time owner of what used to be a new gas stove, then you need to know how to maintain it properly. What is the importance of maintenance, you may ask? To keep your appliance in the best possible condition for optimal performance and upkeep of quality cooking standards.

If you’re going to spend money on a gas stove, you can surely spend a little bit of time keeping it in good shape.

Why gas is good

Now, if you’re still on the fence about getting a gas stove in the first place, let’s take a look at why gas is good. Then you can search for gas stoves online and finally buy yourself one.

Speed: Gas stoves are known for generating heat in a speedy manner, which means you can spend less time slaving away in the kitchen or standing around waiting for water to boil.

Heat distribution: If you’ve struggled before with having to manoeuvre and rotate pots and pans over the hob just to make sure the heat is evenly distributed, then you’ll be happy to know that gas stove flames are king of even heat distribution.

Temperature control: As you’re cooking on your gas stove, you have instantaneous control over your gas flame and how much heat you need in the moment. With your control knobs, you can increase and decrease the heat as is needed.

Durability: With an electric stove, you’ll be slightly disadvantaged when the power goes out. As long as you have gas, your gas stove will always be functioning and able to boil your water for a cup of coffee by candlelight.

Cool down: Once you’ve cooked your meal, give your stove some time to cool down before you begin cleaning, you don’t want to burn yourself.

Wipe down: Take a damp cloth and wipe down your stove top. This way you can quickly get rid of the loose food and dirt and see where deep cleaning needs to happen. If you make a habit out of doing this after every cook, your deep cleaning missions will be fewer.

The burners: Take the burner grates and caps and place them in a sink or bucket filled with warm water and dish soap to soak, before you give them a good clean. When they’re clean, you can rinse them and leave them to dry. If you want to hurry things along and ensure your burner parts are completely dry, you can stick them in a warm (not hot) oven for about 10 to 15 minutes. When placing the burner caps back onto the stovetops, be sure to place them correctly, otherwise, without the connection, there will be no flame.

Stovetop: While your burners are drying, it’s time to take to the stovetop with oven cleaner and a sponge to scrub the rest of the grime and food spills on there. Use a toothbrush if you need to, to get in all the small areas by the burners. And when you’re done, dry your stovetop and let it shine.

Keeping it in check

When you think about it, there really isn’t much that will stop your gas stove from working. There are four main parts that end up being replaced or repaired over time. The igniter or spark electrode, wire connections that are loose or burnt, thermostat issues or oven control board issues.

When your flame doesn’t want to come on at one of the burners, it usually means that the burner cap hasn’t been placed over the connection correctly. But, if that is still not the case, then it may be an ignition issue.

Take note of any little issues that your gas stove may be giving you and try the quick fix remedies first, before you need to call in a repairman or go browsing for replacement parts.

You don’t want to do that

Then there are also a few things that you can stop yourself from doing to make sure your gas stove stays in the best condition possible.

You don’t want to be pouring water over your stove top when it comes to cleaning. You will likely increase the chances of ignition problems if you do so and it won’t have that speedy heating element to it that you enjoy.

When it comes to cleaning the burner holes, your first thought may be to use a toothpick, but you shouldn’t. Toothpicks are likely to chip off in the hole and be a hazard and hassle to get out. A toothbrush will be the better option here.

Cleaning your control panel should be done with cleaning liquid on a cloth, not directly on the panel with an abrasive material. You would much rather prefer your control panel and knobs to maintain their sleek look and not have a worn appearance.